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The magazine was started by 1908 by Ford Madox Hueffer (later Ford Madox Ford) "in a rage that there was no place in England to print a poem by Thomas Hardy" and as a venue for some of the best writers available.[1] Published in December 1908, the first issue contained original work by Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, John Galsworthy, W. H. Hudson, R. B. Cunninghame Graham, and H. G. Wells. Hueffer maintained this level of quality in subsequent issues he edited, publishing the early work of Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence, and Wyndham Lewis as well. Yet despite its literary excellence, the new venture was not a financial success. Issued as a monthly magazine of approximately 175 pages and sold for half a crown, The English Review did not exceed a circulation of 1,000 during Hueffer's editorship.[2]

Harrison courted controversy by challenging attitudes towards sexuality when he published works by authors such as Frank Harris, leading to condemnation in the pages of other journals. Such notoriety boosted circulation, however, as did a subsequent reduction in the magazine's cover price to a shilling. By 1915, the magazine was profitable to the point when Harrison bought out Mond, becoming the owner as well as the editor.[3]

After the First World War, however, the journal began to decline. Harrison sold The English Review in 1923, but subsequent editors took the journal in an increasingly conservative and less literary direction. In 1937, the magazine was absorbed by The National Review.

The English Review at The Modernist Journals Project: cover-to-cover, searchable digital edition of the first fifteen issues, edited by Ford Madox Hueffer (Dec. 1908 - Feb. 1910). PDFs of these issues may be downloaded for free from the MJP website.